“Clearly, we didn’t have the best relationship with the man, but hell is it ever rough. He used to be the biggest creature I’d ever seen walk this earth. Now, he’s nothing more than a husk.”
There was hurt on his face that she didn’t think he knew he felt. There was bitterness in his voice when he spoke about his father, but it kept dissolving into sadness and she couldn’t bear it anymore.
“Alright, how about that breakfast?” She would rather face the throbbing pain of civilization’s sounds and smells than subject Gage to this kind of torture.
Sucking in a deep breath, he nodded. “Yeah, we should do that.”
They emerged into the cold air, but the smells assaulted her before she could even adjust to the temperature. She could smell burnt coffee, rotting trash, asphalt, and exhaust all at once. How she never smelled it all before amazed her. Each scent stood out, tingling her nose until she thought she might sneeze.
As she struggled with the scents, Gage moved around the car toward her. His arm wrapped around her waist until his scent pushed the others away. Kaylee knew she should push him away, to keep a wall between them, but she leaned into his scent. Gage was the reason she could control the animal inside her at all. She owed him half of what she was, but it didn’t feel like owing. It felt like a bond, one that she dreaded having to break.
As they walked toward the center of town, Kaylee debated the pros and cons of staying friends. She quietly considered asking him if they could remain friends after she left, but knew things like that always ended badly. Perhaps, it would be best if she cut him off entirely.
The thought of a life without Gage struck her with cold fear. It made her chest tight and her feet fumble beneath her.
“Whoa there,” Gage said as he held her upright. “Is it getting to you already? We aren’t even downtown yet.”
Kaylee shook her head and found her footing with Gage’s help. “No, I just tripped is all.”
He regarded her warily. “If you’re not up for this yet, we can go back home.”
Home. That house wasn’t her home, but she couldn’t tell that to him without hurting his feelings. For her, home was a small ranch house in Maryland. That was where her family was.
“I said I’m fine. I tripped over my own feet.” She offered him a smile, attempting to reassure him even though it was weak.
As she came back to the present, the sights and sounds grew stronger. The world was sharper, brighter. She could see the texture of the brick buildings, see the uneven coloring of hand painted signs. Was this how the world always looked to Gage? She cast a sideway glance at him, no signs of the wonder she felt on his face. This was normal to him.
The wonder lasted all of a moment. They emerged into the main street of Stonefall, where tourists and locals mingled. People rushed back and forth with coffee and pastries in their hands. It would have smelled delicious if she couldn’t smell their chemical soaps or heady body odor. It all came together to make her stomach churn. Bile rose to burn her throat as Gage pulled her forward.
Kaylee tried her hardest to keep her shoulders pulled back and her head up, but a car horn blared down the street. The sound made her ears ring and her head spin. She closed her eyes, but the sounds only intensified.
“How do you deal with this?” she asked through gritted teeth.
“Very carefully.”
“That doesn’t answer my damn question and you know it.”
He laughed, a huff of a sound. She felt his shoulders rise and fall with the humor. “It’s about selective hearing, I guess. Decide what you want to hear and tune the rest out.”
“That’s easy for you to say. Men are great at selective hearing.” Still, Kaylee struggled to direct her attention forward. She could see the doors of the local café, swinging as people poured in and out.
She tried to focus on the smell of fresh ground coffee, shoving aside the smell of exhaust and sweat. She couldn’t believe how badly public places smelled of sweat. It was enough to destroy her appetite altogether. She shook her head. Coffee. That’s all she had to remember.
Her shoulders relaxed, little by little, as they passed through the doors. Inside, the smell of sweat was stronger, but so was the coffee. It mingled with the smell of sugar and butter, making her stomach growl. How long had it been since she’d last had such a treat? Staying with the Vancourt brothers, she’d been living off cheap steak and rice. As much as she needed the protein, she welcomed the butter and sugar floating in the air.
“What do you want? Something frilly and ridiculous?”
Kaylee regarded the menu. “Iced coffee and a croissant. No, four croissants.”
Gage laughed. She could have fallen head first into the sound. It warmed her, knowing more often than not she caused his laughter.
You need to leave Stonefall. The reminder echoed through her mind and brought her crashing back down to earth.
As Gage placed the order, she stayed back. She let her eyes rove over the café, studying faces while she was alone. But, every moment that passed, her control slipped. The smells grew stronger. The sounds grew louder. What looked to be casual conversations felt like screaming matches in her ears. Her heart thumped inside her chest and a sweat broke out on her skin.
“Hey,” Gage said, grabbing her arms. “Are you alright?”
The familiar, golden eyes reared before her. They screamed at her.
Run. Run. Run. Run.
The word echoed endlessly. She needed to escape, to flee. Only then would she be safe. Only when she was far away from the screaming people and their chaos would she be safe. The smell of cream in the air turned sour and her stomach flipped. The coyote thrashed inside her. It slammed against the confines of her body until she ached.
She knew she couldn’t shift here, but she didn’t know how much longer she could fight it. The coyote demanded freedom and she didn’t know if she was strong enough to fight it. Already, it felt like a losing battle.
Then, a pair of hands grasped the sides of her face. Lips crashed into hers. Gage’s scent enveloped her and the tension in her shoulders melted away. His lips parted, and his tongue pressed against her. She opened to let him in, savoring the taste of him. After he fully explored her mouth, he pulled back.
They both struggled to catch their breath. She couldn’t help the small smile that slipped over her lips. It was instant as a warm glow crept into her chest.
Gage held onto her face, his hands warm and protective. He studied her face, looking for more signs of panic. She shook her head.
“Everything good?”
“I-I think so.”
He nodded. “Stay focused. One thing at a time. You’ve got this.”
Someone called out Gage’s name and he slipped away for a moment. She missed his warmth against her cheeks, but he quickly returned with two coffees and a paper bag that seemed heavy. She could see the grease from its contents already seeping through the paper.
This time, as she looked around for a seat, the sounds didn’t send spikes through her brain. She shoved them back until it became nothing more than a murmur. Smells were harder, but she managed to single out the smell of the bag in Gage’s hand.
Croissants.
Her stomach growled in anticipation as they chose a seat by the window. The cool air outside made the glass emanate with cold, but it felt nice against her skin. She ran too hot as it was. Gage placed a plastic cup, already shedding condensation, in front of her. She lifted the straw to her lips and took a long drag. Sweet and creamy, it filled her mouth and left her groaning. As she swallowed, the taste of vanilla bean lingered.
Gage watched her, watched the way she held the straw between her lips, with a hungry look on his face. She should have shied away from the look, but it left her warm as he set the bag down on the table. Perhaps just once more, she thought. They could have fun one more time before she had to go back to her old life.
She’d yet to know what it felt like to have him buried deep inside of her. Finge
rs were one thing, the cock she’d witness was a whole other thing. Just thinking about it made her damp with desire. She wished she could reach across the table and pull him into her, reignite the kiss he’d given her as she started to panic.
“How about you have a pastry, instead?” Gage pushed the bag toward her. His nostrils flared, making her cheeks redden.
He could smell the desire flooding through her. She worked to push it back, to lock away the deviant thoughts, while reaching for a pastry.
“How many did you buy?” she asked with surprise as her fingers brushed a plethora of pastries.
“You said you wanted four,” Gage said with a disinterested shrug despite the twinkle in his eyes. “So, I got four.”
“I mean… I was mostly joking.” Still, a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. She quickly tore into the first croissant, the flaky layers sending the scent of butter into the air.
She managed to eat two and a half, sharing the last one with Gage, before they stood to leave. She reached for the vanilla bean coffee, not yet willing to part with the sweet caffeine. For a moment, she thought about ordering a refill, but she wasn’t sure how the caffeine would act now that she was a shifter and didn’t really want to chance anything weird happening while they walked around town.
The feeling of eyes on her skin brought her head up. At first, she thought it was Gage, tracking her as his mind brought him to the same place she’d been a little while ago. But, his back was to her as he tossed his cup and the paper bag into the trash. Brows furrowing, she turned toward the rest of the café.
Her heart nearly stopped when she thought she saw a familiar face. No, she told herself. It couldn’t be. The last time she’d seen him, it’s only been a flash of a face before teeth clamped down on her skin. She was mistaken, anxiety bringing bad memories to mind.
***
Gage would hate to see her leave, but if she felt nothing holding her to Stonefall, who was he to argue? Still, the thought of watching her go filled him with anger and fear. The bear roared in his ears, a constant sound ever since she told him she wanted to leave. He was afraid the bear wouldn’t let her leave. It should have been used to people walking out, but there was something about the idea of Kaylee walking away that it could not stand.
He turned around to find fear written across her face again. His heart lurched into his throat. Had she taken a step backward again? Was the coyote close to the surface? But, when he saw her eyes, he found there was no glimmering gold of her coyote in them. Instead, she looked at him and swallowed.
When he reached her, she grabbed his arm and held him tight. He wanted to question what was happening, but knew it could wait until they were outside, with fewer ears.
But, as they passed between a set of chairs and the order counter, a person shot up from their seat and planted themselves between them and the exit. The bear growled, a sound that slipped through him and into reality as he stared down the man before them. Between the scent of coffee and sweat, Gage picked up another smell.
Shifter.
His stomach tightened. Familiar shifter.
Frederick spun to face them, leaning against the counter as if this was a casual meeting and Gage didn’t want to rip his face off. He looked Kaylee up and down in a manner that enraged the bear. Gage gently pushed her behind him and stepped up to his old friend. Her fear was palpable, worse than when they faced an entire pack of feral shifters.
“You turned out to be a tasty treat,” Frederick said, leaning to peer past Gage. “Isn’t she just the cutest when she’s afraid?”
His fist latched onto the front of Fredrick’s shirt and pulled his attention back to him. His lips curled back from his teeth and the bear peered out his eyes. Fredrick was nothing more than a morsel of meat in the bear’s eyes. Their friendship, their history, all meant nothing when he threatened Kaylee.
Still, Fredrick smiled. He reached up to grasp Gage’s wrist and pulled the fist away from his shirt. “It looks like you’re trying to steal from me, Gage. Is that what friends do to each other?”
“Excuse me?” Gage growled. He wouldn’t hesitate to lay the shifter flat in the middle of the café. He’d been to jail before, the first time on Fredrick’s account, and it would be oh so satisfying once he knocked the smile off his face.
Fredrick motioned to Kaylee, where she lingered behind Gage. He leaned close enough to whisper. “I can smell my scent all over her. You and I both know she belongs to me.” The whisper turned into a snarl.
No. Rage burned through his muscles. He grabbed Fredrick by his shirt again and dragged him outside. People turned, alarm on their faces. Kaylee shouted for him to stop, but he couldn’t. Didn’t she understand that the shifter had just threatened her? This monster had laid claim to her.
He pulled his old friend’s face close to his so that his hot spittle would spray over the shifter’s face as he laid down his demands. “You own nothing here. You will turn around and leave this territory like you and your Alpha should have.”
He threw the shifter to the ground, his hands trembling with the desire to pummel his face. He wanted to leave the shifter bruised and broken, not only for trying to claim Kaylee, but for hurting her in the first place. He wanted to make the man beg and plead.
“This is more my home than yours,” Fredrick growled. “You left Stonefall. You left me. I could have been a bear, but now I’m a coyote.”
A gentle hand touched his shoulder. His head spun only to find Kaylee beside him. Her eyes pleaded with him, questions pushed aside lone enough to beseech him, and the rage receded. It still burned through his body, like nothing he’d ever felt before, but it didn’t bend him to its will.
“You can’t keep her forever,” Fredrick said from the ground. “We will come back to take her. You and I both know what you’re doing is wrong.”
The rage turned into ice-cold fear. His stomach dropped to the floor.
“What is he talking about?” Kaylee’s voice held a touch of panic through her anger. “Gage? What is he saying?”
But, he couldn’t find the words to tell her. He only stared at the still smiling shifter on the ground. Fredrick knew he’d won this fight in a way that Gage could not. His fists could not change the way a pack worked. Physical fighting could do nothing, and he’d never felt more helpless.
His heart in his throat, Gage pulled Kaylee away from the shifter and the café. She wouldn’t stop asking questions, but he couldn’t exactly tell her he had no voice at that moment. Fear gripped him and twisted him in every direction. The thought of Kaylee in the shifter’s hands, knowing what Killian supported in his pack, destroyed him.
He stormed through town, trying to find his voice, trying to calm the raging beast inside of him. She wasn’t his. The words echoed through his mind, over and over again. It twisted and rendered him weak. His knees threatened to drop him to the ground once they reached the car.
“Will you try to tell me what is going on? I’m one hundred percent sure this involves me and I’m getting pretty pissed that you won’t even speak to me. He owns me? He could have been a bear? I don’t understand any of this.” Kaylee growled, becoming a storm around him.
He yanked the driver’s side door open and slid inside, hoping the small space would help his bear stay inside. It wanted to stampeded back into town and hunt down the feral shifter, but he couldn’t break that rule. He couldn’t shift in front of humans.
Kaylee threw her hands in the air and joined him in the car.
“I’m taking you home,” Gage said once she seated herself.
“Wait,” she paused. “What?”
“You heard me. I think it’s time for you to go back to wherever you came from.”
She snorted. “That’s not the best way to put it. Still, I’d like to know why you all of a sudden want to get rid of me. What did I do?”
He gripped the wheel. It twisted beneath his hands, mangling the poor thing further. He could hear the pain in her voice, the fear that was
tied to it. She thought she’d done something or there was something wrong about her. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Gage wanted to keep her close, to show her how he felt, but he knew the safest place for her was far away from Stonefall and him.
He shoved the car into gear. The world moved around them while Gage tried to calm the bear.
“Is there… is there something wrong with me because that man changed me?”
“That man is a piece of shit.” His heart broke at the sound of her words. He reached across and grabbed her hand. “There is nothing wrong with you. I’m afraid for you. I want you to be safe and if that means sending you home where I will never see you again…”
The words caught in his throat. He couldn’t bring them into the world. He should have known better, should have kept his distance from her, but he’d still fallen for her. She wrapped herself around his heart from the first moment he found a confused pup in a shitty alley. Gage wondered if there would have been a bond between them like the one between Archer and Joanna, but it was too late now.
“The man, the shifter, he threatened something. What was he saying?”
Gage’s throat closed. His foot pressed harder on the gas pedal.
“Gage?” She gripped the door handle, her eyes growing wild. “You should slow down.”
His breath came fast. His heart pounded inside his of his chest. He wasn’t sure he was going to make it back to Vancourt house without shifting. The bear pounded on the edges of his mind. It scratched and clawed as it roared. Kaylee would be safe once he took her home. But, no matter how many times he reassured the bear, the words fell on deaf ears.
He slammed on the brakes. The car slid to the side of the street where Gage shoved it into Park. Shoving his door open, he stumbled into the cold air. Kaylee didn’t hesitate to follow him as he moved into the woods. His fingers curled in his hair, threatening to become claws.
“Hey!” Kaylee grabbed him and spun him around with her newfound strength. She pulled him into her body, much like he’d done with her earlier. Her hand touched the side of his face and made him focus on her.
Gage Page 8
